Damages for brain injured international charity worker hit by car in south London

We successfully recovered damages for a brain injured foreign national, working in a senior role for an international charity, who was hit by a car when returning home from Peckham Rye train station.

Our client has no memory of the accident, and the first thing he recalls is being in Accident & Emergency. He suffered skull fractures to the base and back of his skull and a brain injury to the left side of his brain, caused by contusion trauma. He also sustained a broken collarbone and right elbow.

The next few weeks and months were, to say the least, hazy for our client as he slowly recovered from the acute symptoms of brain injury including vomiting and nausea; confusion, disorientation and balance disturbance; significant difficulty with loss of memory and problems with speech.

Unfortunately, although our client made a remarkable recovery in view of the severity of his injuries, he sustained permanent bilateral (both ears) hearing difficulties, severe tinnitus (for which he requires further treatment now and in the future) and a permanent loss of smell. In addition, our client continues to have difficulty with concentrating, speed of processing, mood management and fatigue, and he is at increased risk of epilepsy.

Our client is employed by an international charity in a job that is extremely high-pressured, requiring international travel and long hours, high-speed processing skills and attention to detail. A high achiever with admirable determination, he has developed coping mechanisms and strategies to failsafe himself at work and in his personal life; however, he continues to face limitations and in particular is precluded from working and socialising in specific environments because of the tinnitus, which creates difficulties for him due to the international nature of his role.

Our specialist personal injury team investigated and pursued a civil claim against the defendant driver’s insurer for breaching their duty of care to our client as a road user, and thereby causing him life-changing injuries.

Liability in this matter was resolved early, which meant that the parties could move to consider quantum (the value of the claim) without the need to involve the court. Expert evidence from multiple experts was required to delineate the nature and extent of our client’s injuries, including neurology for the head injury, ear, nose and throat for the hearing impairment and orthopaedics for the broken bones. Our specialist team completed a ‘schedule of loss’, setting out all of the claimant’s financial losses both now and in the future, before presenting the full evidence to the defendant’s representative.

Thankfully, the parties were then able to negotiate a settlement figure that reflected the severity of our client’s injuries, adequately compensating him for his incurred losses and the future losses that he will face because of his injuries (including further treatment costs).

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